With Eyes Wide Open

Eyes Wide Open

At 34, there is not a lot left that Roy “Big Country”
Nelson has yet to experience in mixed martial arts. He has
fought overseas. He has fought for championships. He has battled
the world’s best fighters.

In August, however, he experienced a new and humbling feeling. He
lost a fight.

There were no extenuating circumstances. There was no controversy
in the judging. The better man won, and Nelson was not that man. In
the process, the colorful veteran’s eyes were opened about where he
was and what he needed to do to achieve his goals in the sport.

“My jiu jitsu, striking and wrestling have improved. I’m smarter,
faster and stronger,” Nelson says about his development as a
fighter, “but the biggest thing was the Junior dos
Santos fight. I think that’s the only fight I had where I felt
the better man actually won. That’s the only time I had that
feeling. When you go into a fight, you’ve got to throw more punches
than the other guy, and Junior is probably the guy who hit me the
hardest in my whole career. That forced me to become a better
fighter.”

If an athlete explains away a loss as somehow unreflective of his
overall skill, there is no impetus to rededicate himself. It was
not his preparation and skill level that led to the defeat; there
were other circumstances. However, if the other competitor was
simply superior, hard work is needed to close that gap. Nelson
showed a stout heart and a strong chin in surviving three rounds
against Dos Santos at UFC 117, but he took a beating from the
feared Brazilian striker in the process.

Jose
Salgado, a training partner of Nelson’s for the past two and a
half years, has noticed a marked difference in Nelson’s preparation
since the Dos Santos bout. It is a change Salgado believes will be
apparent when Nelson fights at UFC
130 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Frank Mir
File Photo

Nelson and Mir crossed paths in a
2003 Grappler's Quest match.

“In all honesty, I feel this is the best shape he’s ever been in,”
Salgado observes. “With Roy, he’s always going to be good wherever
it goes, and it’s just a matter of how hard he pushes himself. He
always pushes himself hard, but I feel this is his best training
camp as far as cardio.

“People sleep on Roy’s cardio because of how he looks, but I [tell
them to] come see him spar,” he adds. “It sounds cliché, but it’s
the truth. The Dos Santos fight may be the catalyst that moves him
to the next level. It truly opened his eyes. I’m not saying he
never worked hard to begin with, but he’s got the extra oomph to
take him to the next level.”

In order to move back into title contention, Nelson will have to
overcome a familiar foe: former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
Nelson and Mir have known each other since before either man
entered MMA. They first met doing jiu-jitsu 11 years ago. They were
not close friends, but they respected each other and trained
together at times.

In the early 2000s, the careers of Mir and Nelson were moving in
different directions. The eloquent and charismatic Mir was
fast-tracked for success in the early days of Zuffa LLC’s
UFC. He was considered one of the top prospects in the sport.
Nelson, with many of the same skills but without the same
marketability as Mir, was focused principally on training others.
Mir was a politician, Nelson a campaign manager.

While Mir and Nelson were on different trajectories, they shared a
similar background. Las Vegas is the world’s capital for MMA. The
UFC runs more major events in Vegas than any other locale, and many
of the world’s best fighters have migrated there to train. However,
the number of elite fighters who were actually born and bred in Sin
City remains relatively small. Nelson and Mir are two of the proud
few, always enjoying extra support when they fight in their
hometown.

Aside from their Vegas connection, Mir and Nelson have been linked
in many fans’ minds for years because of their 2003 Grappler’s
Quest bout. Mir at the time was one of the UFC’s top regarded
heavyweights, but Nelson was generally believed to have gotten the
best of the action. Ever since, fans have long speculated how Mir
and Nelson would match up in full MMA competition.

Some subjects are raised so often by media and fans that fighters
become actively hostile to answering questions about them. Few
topics can alter Robbie
Lawler’s preternaturally calm demeanor, but ask him for the
50,000th time about a potential rematch with Nick Diaz and
you might actually get some emotion from the middleweight
contender. Likewise, Nelson has no more interest than Mir in
harping on their grappling contest. He simply notes that they both
looked a lot different back then and moves on.